Somerset is on the front line of climate change. Agricultural land makes up 66 per cent of the county and 91 per cent of the Glastonbury and Somerton constituency, so it is key to the nation’s food production. Without urgent intervention, the UK’s food security is under immense threat.

The scale of the problem is clear from the extreme weather we’ve experienced in 2026 alone. When Storm Chandra hit at the end of January, Somerset was battered by 50 millimetres of intense rain falling on already saturated ground, causing devastating floods. Six months later, on 25 June, the UK’s record for the hottest June day was broken in the Somerset town of Yeovilton, with temperatures reaching 36.4 degrees Celsius. This closed schools, put pressure on the NHS and led to drought stressed fields and compromised livestock welfare.

If Somerset’s land drowns in winter and desiccates in summer, it cannot produce the food our country needs. The success of crops planted over the autumn, winter and next spring depends on irrigation, but there is a risk that reservoirs will not refill sufficiently. Along with worsening soil moisture deficits and the limited recharging of groundwater, this will lead to inadequate water for irrigation. So this year’s heatwave is already impacting crop yields and water resilience in 2027.

If livestock farmers are unable to grow sufficient forage during the summer, they will be forced to choose between reducing their herds or paying inflated hay prices to keep them fed. We saw this in 2025, when prolonged dry weather led to grass yields dropping 50-80 per cent in areas across the UK. Farmers had to dip into winter feed stores early, leaving them with no choice but to purchase expensive, imported feed to make up the gap later.

While extreme high temperatures pose unfamiliar, devastating problems, flooding is far from new in Somerset. But we are still unprepared. After the disastrous floods of 2013-14, which saw over 600 houses and 17,000 acres of farmland across the Somerset Levels under water, the then Conservative prime minister, David Cameron, promised that money was “no object” when it came to preventing similar disasters in future. But this money never came. Alongside real term cuts to flooding budgets, the Environment Agency and local authorities, this has made Somerset even more vulnerable to flooding.

Research by the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) shows that record rainfall in 2023 and 2024 led to the second worst harvest on record: a shortfall in production which lost UK farmers £600 million in revenue.

In Somerset, we depend on farmers to store floodwater on their land, to protect homes downstream. This has immense financial implications, with one local farmer halving his cattle numbers to store floodwater for increasingly long periods over winter.

Coming from a farming family, I understand the crucial role farmers play. This is why I have called in parliament for farmers to be properly compensated for storing floodwater and I have demanded that the government invests £1 billion a year in additional schemes to equip farmers to remain resilient in the face of extreme weather events and climate change.

Food security is central to our national security: with the UK currently only 55 per cent food secure, our overreliance on imports is never more evident than in times of international instability. For this reason, I have tabled a Good Food Bill in Parliament, which calls for supermarkets and public service providers to prioritise the procurement of British-grown produce, providing farmers with the long term certainty they need to invest and plan for the future. But for food to be produced domestically, we need to safeguard our farmland.

Protecting our food security means investing properly in flood resilience, here in Somerset and across the UK. I have campaigned tirelessly since my election, and most recently in my role as the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for rural affairs, for the government to take flooding and climate change more seriously.

To best support communities in Somerset, we need collaboration between government agencies and local authorities. Alongside hard engineered flood defences, we need proper investment in sustainable drainage systems and strategic catchment-based protection plans, and renewed focus on nature-based and agricultural solutions.

The minister for water and flooding, Emma Hardy, joined me in Glastonbury and Somerton at the beginning of February 2026 to meet representatives from Somerset Council, Somerset Rivers Authority and the Environment Agency. Local farmer Michael Curtis showed us his flooded farmland, highlighting the challenges faced by farmers like him who give up land to store water for months to protect their communities. Following her visit, the minister announced a £50 million landmark investment in flood defence and resilience funding for Somerset.

This investment could be a turning point in the fight against flooding in Somerset, and I will ensure the momentum is not lost and will continue to push for farmers who sacrifice their land to be adequately compensated.

The 2026 heatwaves show flooding is only half of the story. Without urgent, whole system action to tackle climate change, extreme weather events will only grow in frequency and severity. Our farmers are key to the fight against climate change; we cannot let them fall.

* Sarah Dyke is the MP for Glastonbury and Somerton and Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Rural Affairs.